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Doc Rivers appears deep in thought during the Clippers’ Game 5 loss to the Trail Blazers on Wednesday night at Staples Center/AP photo by Mark J. Terrill

The Clippers began their first-round playoff series with the Portland Trail Blazers by winning the first two games. They have now lost the past three and are without star players Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, both of whom went down with injuries in a Game 4 loss at Portland.

Coming off their 108-98 Game 5 loss at Staples Center on Wednesday, the Clippers now must try to stay alive in the best-of-seven series by winning Game 6 on Friday night at Portland. This is, indeed, a difficult task.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers knows it, as do his players, which is what Rivers wants.

“It is daunting, as far as that we know it is a challenge,” Rivers said Thursday during a conference call. “I tell my guys all the time, ‘If you want to do stuff that is great, it should be hard. Embrace hard. Embrace the difficulties of it.’ Obviously, we did not plan on any of this happening. We planned on being up, or whatever by now, but we had a bump in the road.

“I talk to them all the time. You’ve got to have great resolve. I think our guys have that.”

Rivers said his players showed some of that in Game 5, which was tied 71-71 after three quarters before Portland took the game in the fourth.

“… You can’t lose your will,” Rivers said. “I think that will be the key for us. We have to play a game tomorrow where we just play through the game. When things are going great, great. When things are going poorly, which they do at times on the road, you’ve got to play through that and have great resolve, and I think our guys do that.”

Clippers coach Doc Rivers looks down as he leans on the scorer’s table during the second half of the Clippers’ 108-98 Game 5 loss to Portland on Wednesday at Staples Center/AP photo by Mark J. Terrill

With their 108-98 Game 5 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night at Staples Center, the Clippers are on the brink of elimination as Portland now leads the series 3-2.

Game 6 is Friday at Portland. A Clippers victory would bring the series back to Staples Center for Game 7. It is a tall order, considering the Clippers will again be without their two stars – Chris Paul (fractured hand) and Blake Griffin (partially torn quad tendon).

“I don’t want to use every cliche in the book, but this is the most important game of the year,” he said. “I guess there is no other way to say it. I don’t want to equate a basketball game to death, but it is do or die.

“We have to figure out a way to win the game and get it back here in front of our home crowd for Game 7.”

Injured Clippers point guard Chris Paul winces after bumping his fractured right hand during a timeout Wednesday in the Clippers’ 108-98 Game 5 loss to the visiting Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center/AP photo by Mark J. Terrill

– DeAndre Jordan did everything he could to try and lead his depleted Clippers to victory. He scored 16 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, blocked three shots and made 6 of 11 from the free-throw line. He had three assists, for good measure. It all just wasn’t enough.

– Jeff Green had his second consecutive solid game in 36 1/2 minutes off the bench. He scored 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting and had six rebounds, two assists and three steals. He had a couple of driving dunks that had the Staples Center crowd buzzing.

– The Clippers helped hold Portland guard Damian Lillard – the team’s best player – to just six points on 1 of 10 shooting through three quarters. But with a Clippers team described by coach Doc Rivers as exhausted from emotion, Lillard went to town in the fourth quarter, during which he scored 16 of his 22 points. Lillard made 6 of 10 from the field in the quarter, 4 of 6 from beyond the arc.

– When Lillard and C.J. McCollum are both on, that’s quite the two-headed monster to try and contain. McCollum had 27 points on 9 of 18 shooting in this one to lead all scorers. McCollum is really smooth and crafty to the basket.

– The Clippers played with plenty of spirit in this game. No one should say otherwise. But when a team is missing its two best players – Chris Paul and Blake Griffin – it’s almost too much to ask for it to emerge victorious. When the Clippers finished the third quarter on a 9-0 run to tie the game 71-71, it looked like they might have a chance to pull off an unlikely win. But Lillard got hot and the Clippers ran out of gas. Game 6 is Friday at Portland. The Trail Blazers lead the series 3-2.

Wesley Johnson of the Clippers defends against Al-Farouq Aminu during the first half of the Trail Blazers’ 108-98 victory over the Clippers in Game 5 on Wednesday at Staples Center/AP photo by Mark J. Terrill

Clippers coach Doc Rivers suddenly found it difficult to speak. Then he began to cry.
Rivers had just been asked who he leans on so he doesn’t get discouraged. It was a good question, considering the Clippers lost their two best players – Chris Paul and Blake Griffin – to injury in a Game 4 loss Monday that tied their first-round playoff series 2-2 with the Portland Trail Blazers.

He was OK, for a moment.

“I don’t know,” he said Wednesday at the pre-game news conference ahead of Game 5 at Staples Center, won 108-98 by the Trail Blazers, who took a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 on Friday at Portland. “That’s a good question.”

Then the tears came, and he managed to push out a few more words.

“I’m not crying over being discouraged,” he said. “(The reporter) made me think about my mom. That would have been the person.”

Rivers’ mom, Bettye, passed away in June of 2015. It sounds like she might have been the first person her son called when the bottom fell out Monday in Portland when Paul sustained a fractured right hand and Griffin aggravated his partially torn left quad tendon. Paul is out four to six weeks, Griffin for the season.

The depleted Clippers – missing stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin – started 1 of 8 from the field on Wednesday in Game 5 of their first-round series with Portland at Staples Center. They trailed by as many as seven points in the first quarter.

By the time halftime rolled around, the Clippers were able to take a 50-45 lead over the Trail Blazers into the break. The Clippers led by as many as eight points in the second quarter.

With an opportunity to win a series few thought his team could when it began, don’t think for one second that Portland coach Terry Stotts and his Trail Blazers will now relax because Chris Paul (fractured hand) and Blake Griffin (partially torn quad tendon) are out.

Stotts said as much after his team’s 98-84 Game 4 victory on Monday night in Portland. By then, Stotts knew Paul had a fractured hand and he knew that Griffin could not finish Game 4 because he had aggravated his quad tendon, which was originally injured on Dec. 25.

“Two-two,” he said of the series score. “I love the energy that we’ve had defensively the last three games. We have to take that to L.A. But this is the playoffs. You don’t have time to exhale.”

Expect the Trail Blazers to come out hard against the Clippers on Wednesday night in Game 5 at Staples Center. Austin Rivers is expected to start for Paul and Jeff Green is supposed to start for Griffin.

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